Sequoia Capital India leads $16 mn round in health-tech startup Qure.ai

Qure.ai Technologies, which owns and operates artificial intelligence-powered health-tech platform Qure.ai, has raised $16 million in a funding round led by venture capital firm Sequoia Capital India.

MassMutual Ventures Southeast Asia, a venture capital firm sponsored by Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance, also participated in the round, a statement said. 

This is the Mumbai-based company’s first investment from institutional investors, a spokesperson told TechCircle. Qure.ai was incubated by analytics and consulting firm Fractal Analytics. 

Founded in 2016 by Prashant Warier and Pooja Rao, Qure.ai assesses radiology scans. The solution is especially useful at the time of emergency medical response, reducing treatment time. The solution is used in reading chest X-rays in cases of tuberculosis, pulmonary diseases, lung malignancies, lung collapses and cardiac disorders. 

The company uses artificial intelligence tools to process its database of over seven million scans to give a diagnosis. It has also empanelled radiologists, physicians and public health experts to assist in the scanning process.

The company has operations in over 20 countries and claims that the platform has been used in over 6,00,000 cases so far. 

The company will use the fresh capital to expand geographically and increase its product portfolio. “This funding round will allow us to further invest into research and development, and expand the reach of our solutions,” Warier, co-founder and CEO of Qure.ai, said.

“What sets them (Qure.ai) apart is their ability to deploy commercially at scale across multiple countries, something many others have failed to do as strong algorithms don’t always translate to robust commercial products,” Anjana Sasidharan, principal at Sequoia Capital India, said.

Recent health-tech deals in India

Clevergene: The Bengaluru-based genomics research and analytics startup raised $631,000 in a seed funding round from early stage investment firm Auxano Trust. The platform specialises in DNA sequencing and genomics big data analytics. It offers a slew of products and services ranging from genomics, next-generation sequencing, bioinformatics and diagnostics for genetic disorders.

Crysta: The Redcliffe Life Sciences-owned pregnancy and fertility platform raised $1.4 million in a seed round led by the family office of the Jaipuria Group. Other investors in the round include Green Shots Capital, Alfa Ventures, Real Time Ventures, NGB Dx, Dubai-based Petrotech, Steel City Securities as well as angel investors Lalit Washwa and Kriti Maroli.

Axio Biosolutions: The startup, which manufactures and distributes wound care products, raised $5.2 million in a funding round led by Omidyar Network India to fuel its global expansion plans. Returning investors such as UC-RNT Fund -- the joint investment fund of Tata Sons chairman emeritus Ratan Tata and the University of California -- and venture capital investment firms Accel and Chiratae Ventures also participated in this round. The company has raised a total funding of about $15 million till date.